Friday, June 7, 2013

When it rains, it pours. I'm not talking about just rain here but also talking about our bad luck and experience so far. Since the foundation issue (and flood, and delays which resulted in higher mortgage rate and....) bad things are just keep on coming our way. WE ARE CURSED!

Small concern out of the way first.

Last night it rained so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to check for any leakage after the shingles installation. Well............. of course there is. There was no flashing for the living room bump-out ceiling so that part of the floor got water dropping from the ceiling. The front door left open so the entrance is also wet. I know they tell you the wood is made to withstand getting wet but just because it can, doesn't mean it should. The OSB boards can get wet but I don't think they were made to be soaked in water for a long period of time. The constant wet and dry cycles is probably bad.

As of Monday evening 6/10/2013 , still a pool of water sitting there.

Water dripping from ceiling

The 2 pictures below were taken from 2 different houses but at the same spot of these houses. It holds the roof and the steel beam for the garage. Do you see the differences between these 2 pictures.

The first picture is from my neighbor down the street and the 2nd pic is (that's right) my house. I would say they did a very poor job of it. My neighbor's house is clean and everything fitting nicely. On my house, the concrete is slanted (probably from the early bad foundation pour). The wood appears to be seated incorrectly on the concrete base, only 35% of it is resting on it. Why is there a gap in between? Here is another closer look. Should we be concern?

(update: This has been fixed after bringing to PM's attention, will update with pic when I get a change to take one)

On my last post, I email our SR and PM's manager about helping with closing cost and some closing credit but have not heard back from them yet. In the mean while, I have continue to discover problems with this house. PM is on vacation since last week but will be back Monday.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Things are not looking good for anyone not locked their mortgage rate yet. Each week for the past month rates are higher at a very fast pace. We are now looking at 4.5% vs low 3% a month ago. We purchased with Ryan Homes at the end of December 2012 and our completion is 2 months behind schedule. If we were suppose to close in June as scheduled when we signed the contract we could've gotten the low 3% rate but with all the problems with construction and other delays, we are looking at 1.x% increase in rate on a high balance loan, that's A LOT OF MONEY.

This morning I wrote a letter to our SR and PM's manager (who has been very nice helping us with the construction problems we found) to request for closing credit and closing assistance. I held them responsible for the delays and construction problems we been having since foundation. (you can read them by going back to last 4-5 blog posts). I will post a follow up if Ryan will take some responsibility for this.

Anyway, here are some updates on the house construction. They have installed shingles yesterday on the roof. There are still wet spots in the basement and the subfloor is not completely dry yet on the upper floors.

I used a moisture meter to test the wood in the family room (where it was over 1" of water sitting over night) and it reads18% moisture vs 9% -10% on the dry wood on the wall and over 20% in the cracks between the wood panels. We had 80 degree weather the last 2 days which helped with drying the wood but will need more drying time. Mold can still grow in the cracks between the wood where saw dust are packed in and still wet.

Monday, June 3, 2013

We just can't catch a break!!! Water here water there water everywhere. It hurts us to see the pictures below. Does anyone know if this will have any ill affect on the wood (framing wood, sub-floor, walls etc). Our house got flooded by last night's storm. Everything is installed but the shingles so water got inside and each floor (each room) and basement have large pools of water. The family room has over a inch of pond a fish can swim in. The HVAC unit is already installed and got wet as well, hope it will not rust or early failure.

#1 concern is molding. uuuuuuug it hurts.

This is what it looks like from the outside - no shingles!!!

HVAC unit - it got wet

front door

Morning room and Famil room

Family room

Family room is the worst since there is no floor above, just an open roof.